1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of networking; and more specifically, to configuring attributes of circuits on network elements.
2. Background
As used herein, a network element (e.g., a router, switch, bridge, etc.) is a piece of networking equipment, including hardware and software, that communicatively interconnects other equipment on the network (e.g., other network elements, end stations, etc.). Some network elements are “multiple services network elements” that provide support for multiple networking functions (e.g., routing, bridging, switching, Layer 2 aggregation, and/or subscriber management), and/or provide support for multiple application services (e.g., data, voice, and video). Subscriber end stations (e.g., servers, workstations, laptops, palm tops, mobile phones, smartphones, multimedia phones, voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phones, portable media players, GPS units, gaming systems, set-top boxes, etc.) access content/services provided over the Internet and/or content/services provided on virtual private networks (VPNs) overlaid on the Internet, intranets and/or other private networks. The content and/or services are typically provided by one or more end stations (e.g., server end stations belonging to a service or content provider, or end stations participating in a peer to peer service), and may include public webpages (free content, store fronts, search services, etc.), private webpages (e.g., username/password accessed webpages providing email services, etc.), corporate networks over VPNs, etc. Typically, subscriber end stations are coupled (e.g., through customer premise equipment coupled to an access network (wired or wirelessly)) to edge network elements, which are coupled (e.g., through one or more core network elements to other edge network elements) to the other end stations (e.g., server end stations).
Certain network elements (e.g., certain edge network elements) internally represent subscriber end stations (or sometimes customer premise equipment (CPE), such as a residential gateway (e.g., a router, modem)) and the network segments and elements used to provide access network connectivity to those end stations to themselves with a hierarchy of circuits. The leaf nodes of the hierarchy of circuits are subscriber circuits. Each of the subscriber circuits uniquely identifies within the network element a subscriber session at any given time. A subscriber session represents a unique stream of packets that is received from and sent to a subscriber end station and is identified by factors such as the physical interface and a unique combination of protocol encapsulations, addresses, VLAN, and session identifiers marked in those packet's headers. The subscriber circuits have parent circuits in the hierarchy that typically represent aggregations of multiple subscriber circuits. For example, a VLAN on one of the networks element's interfaces that encapsulates all of the traffic sent or received for a particular set of subscriber end stations whose traffic shares a common physical link on the access network.
Provisioning of parent circuits is applied directly to the individual network elements through mechanisms such as a command line interface (CLI) or a proprietary, vendor-specific graphical user interface (GUI) console. For instance, a CLI would be used to provision a VLAN's identifier, encaps, binding, access control list, and quality of service (QoS) rate enforcement. This type of provisioning is referred to as static provisioning or static configuring.